The IEEE 802.1aq standard (also referred to 802.1aq hereinafter), published in 2012, defines a routing solution for the Ethernet. 802.1aq is also known as Shortest Path Bridging or SPB. 802.1 aq enables the creation of logical Ethernet networks on native Ethernet infrastructures. 802.1aq employs a link state protocol to advertise both topology and logical network membership of the nodes in the network. Data packets are encapsulated at the edge nodes of the networks implementing 802.1aq either in mac-in-mac 802.1ah or tagged 802.1Q/p802.1ad frames and transported only to other members of the logical network. Unicast and multicast are also supported by 802.1 aq. All such routing is done via symmetric shortest paths. Many equal cost shortest paths are supported. Implementation of 802.1 aq in a network simplifies the creation and configuration of the various types of network including provider networks, enterprise networks and cloud networks. The configuration is comparatively simplified and diminishes the likelihood of error, specifically human configuration errors.